Looking to get a .338 Lapua, Any Suggestions ?
I want quality, but I am not rich so a Barrett is probably out.

Thanks guys !!

Sako with a reflex suppressor.

There's a member here (Foxhound) who has the Savage 110BA, he seems to to do pretty well. If I had access to a range to stretch the 338LM out, I'd get the Savage 110BA with the HS stock ditch the HS stock and put it in an XLR chassis.
ETA: here's a video he posted a while back shooting at 2500 yards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2UFdFeFgQ8

Back when I bought mine in early '06, the Sako TRG-42 was the BEST bang for the buck, IMO.

Now we have a lot more choices, so you need to kind of pick a price and let us know?

The AIAW SM and any of AI's more current offerings are a bit more Tier 1, but you're going to pay for that.

The TRG-42 has a world class action, a great stock and an extractor that others put on their own bolts, so it's not a shabby offering.

Mine has always been very accurate.

Chris

You answered your own question!

You realize that it is going to cost you a minimum of $2.00-$3.00 every time that you pull the trigger? Factory ammo, that is actually worth shooting, is going to cost you $4.00-$6.00 per round.

Sorry, but IMHO if you are the slightest bit on a budget, then a .338 is not in the picture unless you want to park it in the safe.

That is to make no mention of the justification/need for one? Very few shooting applications where a .338 is needed.

Do yourself a big favor, and rethink this one!
M Richardson

i started with a r700 XLR and their factory barrel sucks.

give us a ball park you can play with (rifle only) and we can probably help you find something, just know that your looking at 2-3k for the rifle alone. also decide if you want custom or not, if your doing to upgrade everything down the line go custom ou the gate, by the action now then a chasis then the barrel ETC. I wish i would have done this seeing as i started with a remy 700 XLR which was 1.5 MOA at best, tossed the stock and dropped it in a mcree, then tossed the trigger, tossed the stock barrel and had it blueprinted ETC. essentially i paid $1500 for a remington action and bolt when i could have got a custom for the same price.

as for reloads,
brass you will use lapua if you shoot long - 2.50 a peice (when taken care of 20-30 loads so well say 25) its .10 a shot
bullets (berger 300gr) im using CEB right now but lets say a normal cost - $160/250 - $0.64 each
powder - say you can get 8lbs of h1000 at reg price $165/ 8 lbs. thats 56,000 grains. price per shot (assuming 92 grains a common load) = $0.27 per load.
primers - .03 per
total - 1.04 per shot


you also have to think about annealing with the 338. between 2-5 shots depending on how hot and if you do it yourself or pay. the intial investment is up there but the shooting isnt bad. Now turned bullets raise the price a bit, CEB are about 66 for 50.


but that should give you an idea, also consider that the rate on powder there is very modest seeing as how most people are gouging right now.

Have you given any thought to an Armalite AR30M/AR30-A1 in 300WM/300RUM?

It is MUCH more economical and you get to spend more on optics/shooting than with the 338LM without losing too much range.  I have a friend set on 338LM but I think he will regret it since he doesn't have mile long open spaces to shoot in.

If you are interested let me know and I will IM you a couple of links to good deals (of which I am not affiliated with....at all).

You can handload .338LM for about $1.50 a round. I just picked this up from Mile High Shooting for $4,500, not cheap but still heavily discounted. I think they still have a few of the 2013 models on sale to make room for the 2014's.

I was gonna buy a savage 110 ba  but 338 is very expensive and I'm not a sniper so I got the 10ba in .308 and I love. Had it for a few years now and it shoots much better than I do

Not that I am arguing with your numbers, as they are your reality, but I would add:

Brass - if you can manage 25 reloads you are doing much better than most! I don't know of anyone that goes more than 10-12 reloads. If you are annealing them frequently, then I could see the life being extended, but as you eluded to, that is also an additional cost to factor it however you want to do it.

Bullets - you can obviously go from cheap to expensive, but a Berger Hybrid is currently running around $175-$195 per 250 (and the annual price increase is about to hit)

Powder - if you can find 8 lbs of H1000 anywhere for $165, then buy all you can! I am doing well to find 1 lb for $30, and the 8 lbs that I have seen are over $200!

Reality for everyone that I know currently shooting a .338, given:
- The actual Brass Life (to include any associated costs)
- The choice of Bullet
- Today's situation with Powder & Primers
they are somewhere much closer to at least $1.50-$2.00 per round.

I am not trying to argue ammo prices, I am simply trying to make a point, that getting into a .338 can be very expensive, especially when it comes to feeding one.

Unless you really need a .338, because you are shooting past 1,200 yards, and/or you must launch a 250+ grain bullet, there are MUCH cheaper options out there.

I know plenty of people that shoot .338s and .50 BMGs, for no other reason then they can. Of course those people also fall into 2 categories,
- The ones who shoot them 2-3 times a year because they are on a budget and it is all they can afford
- The ones who shoot them all of the time because they are very independently wealthy and can piss away money however they please.

Best of Luck,
M Richardson

This is the answer.  I did the same.

Thanks for all the info, but let me clarify:
I have plenty of hardware in the long range end of my safe.
I am a US Army trained Sniper (a few years ago though, 1990) not bragging, just saying.
I load all my own long range ammo to include .308, .300 win mag, and even .308 Norma Mag.
So this is not my first Rodeo.
My price range is flexible, but I would say just for the rifle, around $2500.00 tops is about all I am willing to spend.
Like I said, I am not rich, and I have saved for a while for this purchase, like I have for all of my more expensive hardware.
I am looking at the Savage product line, and the AR 30A1. Or.............

Any help with some reviews or Quality info would be helpful.

Thanks.

ETA:
I am also an FFL, so I can order the gun from most wholesalers or manufacturers myself.
Just looking for some info on the different rifles that are out there.
Again, Thanks.

Last month I picked up a Savage 110 with the HSP stock and have been impressed with it so far.  I adjusted the trigger all the way out and it is crisp and light (though I can't say I've been on it enough to warm up to the whole accutrigger concept yet).  There are other trigger options out there, so this isn't a deal breaker for me.  

I've only been able to get it out to the range once at this point and so far I'm liking what I see.   The first groups printed were in the 1.25 MOA neighborhood using Berger 300 OTM Tacticals, CCI magnum primers, Nosler Brass and a charge on the light side of H1000.   I've still got my seating depth and ladder testing to work out.  As it comes with the Accuracy 3.85" magazine I can load out COAL to 3.74"~ and this additional length appears to give me plenty of real estate in the throat to work with within the limitations imposed by the magazine.

With only 15 rounds down the pipe I can't give you a definitive on ultimate accuracy, but so far it looks promising.  I'm also planning on working with RL33 and some of the different bullets out there.   For the price it appears to be comporting itself well so far.  

Now to find the load it likes.

What is the typical barrel life for the .338?

D

Traded into the rifle -$850 retails around the  $1200-1600 range.


Savag 111 LRH - needed extensive smithing to be reliable. It's a 8lb rifle with a muzzle brake .
500yds 3/4 inch mild steel

300gr HOTM Berger over 90gr of H1000. Figure $1.12 per shot if I can reload my brass 6 times.
Bought 250 once fired Rorge brass for $250. I've destroyed 6 in the reloading / reliability smithing process.
Gun had a tight chamber. Was keeping brass. A reaming and polish, all screws needed  loctight, stock needed a mod to be a true free float.
The scope on it now is a SWFA fixed 10x in that pic it's a 3-9 WC.

Recoil is mild. 30.06 ish

That was only the second time at 500, and 1/2 of those hits were a alternate powder.

That varies from barrel to barrel.

I know of a fellow over on SnipersHide that got to 1600 rounds on his TRG-42, scoped it and said that the throat was trashed and looked like the back of an alligator, so he rebarreled.

The Finnish army snipers who did the T&E for the TRG-42 stated that they could go approximately 4000 rounds before their 1000m standard (roughly MOA) was violated, which seems like a lot to me.  They were shooting like a spastic on a trampoline during those trials, so more punishing overall.

I once talked on the phone with David Tubb's partner/engineer for their Final Finish 'break-in' bullets and we got to talking about my new Savage 12 VLP in 22-250 and barrel life.  He thought that both of them could tell that that the throat was shot out at around 1500 rounds and while different cartridges behave differently, that's always been a number that's stuck in my mind and I shoot a Sendero Sendero v.1 in 7RM.

Chris

yup sorry i was just saying the post that said 2-5 is a bit of an extreme. mine is if you wait and play all your cards right.

Needless to say Brother, it would have been a little different if you would have lead with that post!

Having lived through all of the "I gotta have a Mk12" threads after Lone Survivor came out, I am not looking forward to all of the "I gotta have a Mk 13" threads after the American Sniper movie comes out.

Savage - watch out, they are notorious for chamber issues. Some people have polished them out, and had better results.
At least one kaboom as a result of this combined with operator error:  http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/02/19/338-lapua-magnum-kaboom/
Obviously price is a major motivating factor, but if I am going to make the decision to start shooting a .338, I am not going to be taking short cuts.

Armalite AR30A1 - a step up, good rifle, though some either hate it or like it. I ran an AR50 for 3 year in competition, and it was one hell of a good shooting rifle.
                                 
For your price range, you are pretty seriously handicapped. If you went to the $3-$3.5K range, you would have a lot more options.

Sorry, but once again if I am going to decided to get into .338 LM, I going to spend the money to get a top of the line gun.

Best of Luck,
M Richardson

Question?  How does a "kaboom" that results from a cleaning rod left in a barrel when the rifle is fired, indicative of a poor/faulty chamber?

Savages were deemed stuckvages because the chambers were cut very tight and brass would often stick in the chamber requiring a cleaning rod to hammer out the brass. These were on loads well within safety guidelines, just a feature of the chamber. I think they remedied this because i have havent heard bad about them in a while.

I picked up a Savage 110 BA in the HS stock 2 years ago.  At the same time I bought a Nightforce NXS scope to mount on it.   I went through some factory loads, experienced the sticky brass issue with everything I tried in Hornady, and reloads in the same brass.  Lapua brass fixed the sticking issue, but I really have struggled with load development.  I've realized recently that the problem might actually be my Nightforce scope - I suspect it has a wandering zero issue.  I'll know for sure tomorrow.  Bottom line, it's been frustrating to try to get my .338 dialed in, I've got approximately 500 rounds through it, 100 factory, and 400 reloads.  My reloads are running 1.50 a round, the factory loads were 4.00.  So I'm about $1k in rounds down the barrel, and still don't have a setup I'd take to a class.  I think that is mostly my fault for not recognizing the potential scope issue sooner, but it's been painful for me.  I've thought about ditching the rifle, but want to make it work.  Not sure my experience would have been any better had I bought a $4k rifle, but that's my fault.  So far, I've had better luck with my .300 win mag for distance shooting, but I am still chasing what the .338 can deliver at that range and longer.  I will add that at the 100 round mark, I realized the factory base on my savage hadn't been properly installed, and the mounting screws had worked loose.  Some loctite fixed it, but I'd still spent the majority of my round expense on the factory loads at that point.  
Good luck with whatever platform you go with, just go in with your eyes open - reloads will be pricier than other platforms.

I am merely speculating here - Savage's have notoriously tight chambers. Operator goes to chamber (or extract) a round that will not chamber/extract with the assistance of the cleaning rod. Operator forgets to remove said cleaning rod.  Kablooey occurs.  

If not for the tight chamber, there would have been no need to insert the cleaning rod through the muzzle of the rifle.

.300 Win Mag is your answer.

This is a solid review of the 111LRH.  The above comments mirror my experience thus far exactly.